Pump



Aug. 19, 1969 a. M. MORVRISON' PUMP 6 Sheets-Sheet Fiied May 17, 1967PUMP -6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed May 1-7, 1967 United States Patent3,461,807 PUMP Elwin M. Morrison, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, assignor toNorthwest Industries Limited, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Filed May 17,1967, Ser. No. 639,214 "Claims priority, application Canada, Oct. 28,1966,

974,30 Int. Cl. F04d 1/00, 13/02, 29/28 US. Cl. 103-103 7 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A portable, floating pump which includes ahousing having an inlet means, an outlet means and an impeller chamber.An impeller is mounted in the chamber on a This invention relates to aportable floatable pump adapted to float on the water which it isadapted to pump.

A need now exists for portable, floatable pumps for use on the farm, inforestry, in construction and in mining. Thus portable floatable pumpsmay be used on the farm to drain sloughs, water livestock, irrigatefarmland or to remove water from flooded areas. In forestry, such pumpsmay be used for wetting down slopes, creating fire breaks,

Patented Aug. 19, 1969 rotatably mounted shaft within said impellerchamber, said impeller being formed of moulded, structurally rigid,light-weight synthetic plastic material; (f) means for driving saidimpeller including a primary driven sprocket secured to said shaft, asecondary driven sprocket driving a secondary drive sprocket in unisontherewith and retained on .a common shaft in axially spaced apartrelation, a primary drive sprocket secured to an engine shaft, a primarydrive chain entrained by said primary drive spocket and said primarydriven sprocket, and .a secondary drive chain entrained by saidsecondary drive sprocket and said primary driven sprocket; (g) a volutechamber arranged around the periphery of said impeller chamber andadapted to contain liquid, said volute chamber being arranged totransfer the liquid from said impeller chamber to said outlet with amaximum of efliciency thus promoting a high flow rate of liquid; (h)float means secured to said housing, said float means including primaryfloat means near the upper portion of said pump.

By an alternate embodiment of this invention, a portable float-able pumpfor liquids (e.g., water) or slurries is provided, in which the pumpfurther comprises secondary or to provide a rapid supply of water for afire area from nearby sources. In construction, such pumps may also beused in construction work for ditch draining preparatory to pipelineconstruction, or for low lying road beds, and for removing water fromexcavation. In mining, such pumps may be used for removing water to makestrip mining more accessible or to provide a source of mill water.

However, many such pumps float rather deeply in the water. This permitsthe motor to become wet'and become unstable in choppy water conditions.Moreover, such pumps tend to tilt or list in normal operation due to thedepth and weight of the hose to which the pump was connected.

Furthermore, in some such pumps leakage of water from the impellerchamber to the gear well occurred with its attendant problems incontaminating the gear lubricant which affected the life of the gears,in addition to deteriorating all components involved.

An object of one aspect of the present invention is the provision of afloatable portable pumphaving improved buoyancy.

An object of yet another aspect of this invention is the provision ofsuch a pump in which the occurrence of water leakage between theimpeller chamber and the gear well is greatly minimized.

An object of another aspect of this invention is the provision of such apump embodying a novel drive mechanism for the impeller.

By one broad aspect of the present invention, a portable floatable pumpfor liquids (e.g. water) or slurries is 5 provided, said pump comprising(a) a housing; (b) .an inlet means to said housing; (0) an outlet meansfrom said housing; (d) an impeller chamber within said housing, adaptedto contain liquid; (e) an impeller fixed on a float means comprising alight-weight foamed synthetic plastic material filler for a pair ofrigid plates, said secondary float means comprising the base of saidpump.

By still another embodiment of this invention, the pump is provided witha gear well surrounding said primary driven and drive sprockets, saidsecondary driven an drive sprockets and said primary and secondary drivechains, the gear well beingadapted to be filled with lubricating oil.

By yet another embodiment of this invention, the housing is formed ofFiberglas (trademark) and the pump includes a sleeve for said impellershaft integrally sealed to said molded fiberglass housing when saidhousing is being formed, said sleeve including means for enhancing andassuring said seal between the periphery of said sleeve and saidhousing.

In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a central longitudinal cross-section of the pump of apreferred embodiment of this invention with the drive mechanism partlybroken away for clarity;

FIG. 2 is a half bottom plan view of the pump of FIG. 1, partly brokenaway;

FIG. 3 is a half top plan view of the pump of FIG. 1, partly brokenaway;

FIG. 4 is a section along line 44 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical cross-section-of the pump shaft sleeve ofthe embodiment of FIGS 1, 2 and 3;

FIG. 6 is a central longitudinal section of the secondary drive sprocketand primary driven sprocket of the drive mechanism used in oneembodiment of this invention,

FIG. 7 is a central longitudinal section of the shaft on which thesprockets of FIG. 6 are mounted, and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view similar to FIG. 1, but showing the drivemechanism in greater detail.

Turning firstly to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the pump includes a plurality oflight-weight, structurally rigid components 11, 12, and 13, preferablyformed of fiberglass. Component 13 is manufactured so as to mould in andsecure pump shaft sleeve 17 which will be further described hereinafterIn addition, the pump shaft sleeve 17 is braced to housing component 13by means of a conical shaped reinforcement 15. Components 12 and 13 areassembled and bonded together, with the bottom end of the pump shaftsleeve 17 being integrally bonded to component 12, to form housing 14.Component 11 is joined to housing 14 by means of a plurality'of bolts 16and gasket 18. The housing 14 and componentll, when assembled, providean inlet conduit 19, and impeller chamber 44, a volute chamber 60, andan outlet conduit 20. Extending from the lower portion of component 11is a guard 21, preferably formed of expanded metal.

Float means are secured to the housing and include primary float meansconstituted by a light-weight expanded plastic material 22, preferablyformed of polyurthane foam, disposed between housing components 12 and13 and shaped to fill the space therebetween precisely. The float meansalso includes a secondary float means constituted by a light-weightformed plastic filler material 23, preferably foamed polyurethane,between two rigid plates 24 and 25 preferably formed of fiberglassreinforced plastic. Four hexagonal head cap screws 26 are providedprojecting through plates 25 and 24 and wood dowel reinforcement 61disposed therebetween in conjunction with one end 62 of four Z brackets27, the other end 63 of each bracket 27 being secured, along withcomponent 11 to component 12 of housing 14 by means of bolts 16 tosecure the secondary float means to the pump.

The provision of the secondary float means contributes, on the average,some lbs. flotation to the pump. This allows the pump to ride level andhigher on the water, thereby keeping the motor dry and more stable inchoppy water conditions. Moreover, this construction is very durable andpermits easier and quicker cleaning of the pump, since it is readilyremovable.

Disposed in the pump shaft sleeve 17 is the water seal 29 and a bearing30. A steel shaft 31 is mounted in the bearing 30. One end of the steelshaft 31 is provided with an iron hub 32 to secure an impeller 33thereto, disposed within the impeller chamber 44 provided betweenhousing units 11 and 12. The impeller is formed of moulded,light-weight, structurally rigid plastic material, preferably thermoseturethane elastomer.

As shown in FIGURES 1, 4, 6 and 7, it is seen that the other, upper endof shaft 31 is provided with secondary driven sprocket 80 which isdriven by a chain 81 entraining such secondary driven sprocket 80 and asecondary drive sprocket 82. The secondary drive sprocket 82 is formedintegral with primary driven sprocket 85 and is mounted for freerotation on shaft 83. Sprockets 82 and 85 are maintained in position onshaft 83 by means of retaining ring 84. Ball bearings 66 or otherfriction reducing members are disposed in a bearing well 67 formed inneck 68 joining sprockets 82 and 85. Shaft 83 is secured to enginemounting plate 69 by washer 70 and jam nut 71. An O-ring 72 is disposedbelow engine mounting plate 69 in well 73 formed in collar 74 of shaft63. Primary driven sprocket 85 is driven by chain 75 entraining it andprimary drive sprocket 76, which is secured to engine shaft 38.

Superposed over the gear well 39 provided by the configuration ofhousing element 13 is the engine mounting plate 69. Gear well 39 isadapted to contain a suitable lubricating oil.

Turning now to FIG. 5, the pump shaft sleeve 17 is provided with acentral bore 47 adapted to receive bearing 30. Also provided are steppedbores 48, 49, and 50 for retaining the water seal 29. The lower portionof the outer periphery of the sleeve is knurled at 51; in one embodimentthe sleeve is of cast aluminum and is knurled with 14 pitch knurling.The upper portion of the periphery is provided with a milled convexsurface 52. The combination of knurling 51 and convex surface 52 enablesthe sleeve 17 to form a better seal with housing elements 13, 12, duringthe assembly operation which forms the housing 14.

Thus, by the present invention a pump has been provided which can handlemany fluids. This pump is adapted to move a large volume of fluid, i.e.,it is a high capacity fluid mover, but it performs this at low fluidpressure. The portable pump of a preferred embodiment of this in ventionis light-weight, approximately sixty pounds in weight, and is relativelysmall in size. The pump preferably is self priming and shouldincorporate a very simple, quick hose connection. Thus the pump shouldrequire 4 simple operating procedures, namely connecting the hose andstarting the engine.

The pump of the present invention is designed to have a lower axialinlet leading to an impeller chamber. The impeller chamber in turn leadsto a toroidal (hollow donut shaped) volute chamber which discharges intothe Water outlet.

I claim:

1. A buoyant centrifugal pump comprising a casing having three squatcomponents of rigid sheet material secured together, a first and secondadjacent casing com ponents being molded in such a shape as to form abuoyancy chamber therebetween, the second casing component beingreentrant within the buoyancy chamber, the reentrancy having the form ofa portion of a centrifugal pump volute chamber and a portion of anoutlet therefrom, the third casing component being adjacent said secondcasing component and having such a shape as to form the remainder of thevolute chamber, the outlet therefrom, and an inlet thereto, lightweightcellular material filling the buoyancy chamber between the first andsecond casing components, a rotatable impeller shaft mounted within thecasing and having the axis normal to the plane of the volute, animpeller of molded, structurally rigid, lightweight material mounted onsaid shaft within the volute and a power source mounted on said pump,said power source being adapted to drive the impeller shaft.

2. A buoyant centrifugal pump as claimed in claim 1, wherein said casingcomponents are made of glass reinforced plastic. 4

3. A buoyant centrifugal pump as claimed in claim 1 wherein'the impelleris made of molded polyurthane.

4. A buoyant centrifugal pump as claimed in claim 1 further comprising aspeed reducing device operatively connecting the power source to theimpeller shaft, said speed reducing device comprising two chain andsprocket drives in parallel planes, one chain and sprocket pairsubstantially overlying the other, the two drives being interconnectedby the integral formation of the driven sprocket of one drive with thedriving sprocket of the other.

5. A buoyant centrifugal pump as defined in claim 1 further comprising aplate-like secondary float means mounted adjacent to, but spaced fromthe third casing component so as to provide a base for the pump.

6. A buoyant centrifugal pump according to claim 5, wherein thesecondary float means comprises two rigid sheets and a lightweightfoamed cellular material therebetween.

7. A buoyant centrifugal pump as defined in claim 1, wherein the casingincludes a metal sleeve at the center of the adjacent first and secondcasing components, the sleeve having an outer surface knurled for aportion of its length and curvedly recessed for another portion, watertight sealing means within said sleeve, the sleeve being mounted so thatthe power source is connected to the impeller through said seal.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,955,924 10/1960 Smith.

3,086,472 4/1963 Lorenzetti. 3,155,045 11/1964 Lown 6:61. I 1,957,6145/1934 Rice.

3,393,643 7/1968 Herman. 3,397,647 8/1968 Daniel. 3,400,664 9/1968Kingsep.

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,300,827 7/1962 France.

HENRY F. RADUAZO, Primary Examiner v 1 Us. 01. x11. 74-217; 103-87, 111;239-17

